I made 784km in october which I'm really proud of. A few days off the bike this week with a torn thigh muscle. I have a big ride coming up on Sunday so the rest will do me good. Should be a big November too

Well, a few noteworthy items for this weekend warrior (or whatever other terms suit..) It was a year ago yesterday that I got my bike, and I celebrated tonight with a lovely 22km thru the hills near my place.I think I've done about 6000km, my odometer says 5715, and I've done a couple hundred on the mtb, and a bit before I got the bike computer.Anyway, I had a great month in October.17 rides (ytd 121), including Kinglake 115km and ATB 210km.778.22km (ytd 5198.53km)8951 metres climbed (ytd 93074)My metres climbed are wrong though, after getting an I Phone, and Strava a few weeks ago, I'm seeing that Bikely overstated elevation by anywhere from 25-50%. I'll be conservative and say I've probably done about 60000 metres.I'm gonna stop counting this year, and start fresh next year.

All going well I will get the 6000km target well before Dec 31st.

A huge thankyou to everyone on this thread. I love reading the banter, and relating to what everyone else goes through on their rides. Great source of advice and info too, thanks guys & girls! Looking forward to many more years cycling, I am addicted!

Curious thing with the elevation gain, my Garmin always records lower than the people I'm riding with, in some cases it can be a couple of hundred meters less, so it doesn't appear to be an exact science.

Had a great ride this morning with Sblack. Started in mild drizzle then we climbed into the cloud and had more persistent drizzle, then it really began to rain!

We rode on good fire trails with some steep climbs to get to Brokers Nose at the top of the escarpment, to be rewarded with an awesome if slightly misty view

and then with some advice from a local guide we hit (me with various parts of my body) some awesome singletrack with rocky drops and berms before looping back up to the top of Mt Keira via Picton Road in search of more tracks. We punted around for a while on a number of tracks that were designed more for wlaking than riding, before descending down through Mt Pleasant, my brakes fading quickly along the way.

Oldnewby, top effort for your first year on the bike, regardless of what the real figure for the climbing is it's still a decent chunk of climbing. I've found the opposite around here comparing bikely to my garmin, with bikely giving readings about 2/3 what the garmin does for some of the Audax rides in the area. As with Grant I've noted other's computers getting higher readings than mine as well, in fact, using strava to compare the section Grant and I rode this morning aparantly Grant climbed 812m while I climbed 771m so I'd call that fairly close. I wonder if mounting location has anything to do with it? I notice both Grant and I had the garmin mounted on the stem rather than the bars. Possibly this changes airflow over the barometric sensor enough to alter the readings between the two positions. I'm not too concerned though as I accept it may have limited accuracy but it's consistent enough for me to use for setting climbing goals and I that's really the main thing I use it for.

Getting back to [url=http://app.strava.com/activities/26765713]today's ride[url] and it was an early start to the day for me. Getting up while still dark the first thing I did was go check on the bike to happily note two inflated tyres. Normally this would be a given but a couple of nights ago I got around to converting the 29er to tubeless. I'd started with the rear and it seamed an easy enough process which a quick check showing no leaks and the tyre staying up I moved onto the front. It proved a little more difficult, taking more swishing around of sealant and placing the wheel horizontal for a few minutes before more shaking and laying the wheel the other way up. Finally it looked all good and I set the tyres to riding pressure and left the bike for the night. Yesterday morning I was disappointed and a little surprised to find the rear had gone flat but the front was ok. So last night I'd had another go at the rear. After pumping it up I found one small leak and that was all. So this morning when both tyres where still inflated it was a good start to the day.

The plan for the ride was pretty simple. I'd ride down to catch the 6:16 train from Albion Park into Wollongong to meet Grant, from there we'd ride up to Brokers Nose and then see how things went from there, possibly meeting up with another couple of guys who'd changed their plans from riding down Keira to riding down Kembla. As I left home the morning mist had given way to some drizzle but I was more concerned with seeing how the tyres would go tubeless. Leaning into the first couple of corners a little more cautiously all went well and before long I was cornering like normal and the tyres where happily staying on the rim as they're meant to, no signs of losing air. Riding along the flattish ride to the station my initial impression was they tyres rolled easier than they had with tubes and I felt that was the case throughout the day so so far the tubeless worked well.

After meeting Grant we headed along back streets and cycleways to make our way to the Tarrawanna entrance to the Lower Escarpment Trail and time for the climbing to begin. The first section of dirt climb had been graded since I'd last been there which gave a lot more freedom of line choice compared to the rutted mess it was ten months ago. The trail is a pleasant setting for a ride and thankfully the drizzle hadn't hampered grip too much as we made our way along the undulating trail. A wallaby crossing the trail ahead of us helping complete the bush setting. There are a couple of steep pitches along the way that I'd failed to successfully ride up last time. Ten months on and it appears my ability to get the balance between front and rear weight has improved and I was pleased to make them this time.

Getting closer to our turn up the escarpment and a gate came into view. I was thinking it seamed familiar as being not long before the turn as Grant informed me that's where he'd turned back on his last ride. We then discovered he was closer to the turn that we'd thought, not 400m down the road, not even 40, more like 10 or 15. Rixons Pass is another tough climb to the top where more open fire trail greets us for ride across to Brokers Nose. Closer to Brokers Nose there are plenty of signs of tracks disappearing into the bush, previous strava searching had shown some segments but down which track I had no idea.

At Brokers Nose we enjoyed some of Grant's freshly baked banana bread before another rider came along. She kindly offered to lead us through some of the singletrack towards Mt Keira where we could take some other trails back down to Wollongong. The first section she took us down was quite rough and rocky with a few drop-offs along the way. I wasn't confident enough to try a few of them but when there was a couple I decided to try it was always a case of them not being as bad as they looked. Some more practice and that section should be more and more rideable. As she left us with directions to keep heading across to Keira there was a bit more rough stuff follwed by a big drop, apparently known as Scary Rock Drop and then things smooth out for some really nice flowing single track. With stuff like this out there it would be easy to spend hours around the area exploring and finding where all the best bits are. Definately worth more trips to check it all out.

From there we didn't managed to find the track leading from Picton Rd to Mt Keira but suspect it was in waterboard property we're not supposed to enter anyway. Signs warning of $11000 fines are certainly not an encouragement to go in and search for it either. As we get closer to Keira I call the others to find they are going to try and find the Keira Drift Track and are currently parked at Robertson's Knoll about to head off and find it. With a belief the Drift Track is a bit more of a downhill style track than we're looking for Grant and I decide to follow a trail on Mt Keira instead. The trail has some nice sections broken up by sections we have to walk and ends up coming out at Roberton's Lookout according to the information sign we'd arrived at. There's a handy map on the sign to give us some better ideas of where to head from there and decide to take the road back to go and join the Ring Track and follow it to the Mt Pleasant Fire Management Trail. As we emerge onto the road we see that Roberton's Lookout is the same as Roberton's Knoll and the ute the others had left behind was sitting there. On the road it was a very short and quick run back to where we'd just come from.

The Ring Track started with walking down steps, some very slippery in the wet. Steps, logs and an occasional vine would break up sections of single track along the very wet trail. The ferns at the trail edge in sections did a fantastic job of holding water to saturate you as you rode past but it was still a very enjoyable trail to ride. Obvious that it was used mostly as a walking trail though as logs where left to block the track and act as an offroad version of a speed hump where we had to dismount on many occasions rather than having some extra bits of log added to turn them into log rolls. The slippery conditions brought us both undone at some stage, more as a result of our shoes having no grip rather than our tyres though with me putting my foot down as I stopped only to have it slip out leaving me flat on the ground with the bike on top of me and a bit further on Grant stepping onto a bridge and sliding off the side. Still neither of us where badly harmed and we had plenty of fun along the way as well as coming across a lyrebird.

At the end of the Ring Track it was time to go back on fire trail. Some nice and easy open stuff I thought as we entered what looked like a cruisy fire trail. Then we turned a corner and the trail dropped. It wasn't cruisy anymore, it was a fast blast down to Mt Pleasant with a couple of easy jumps along the way. Such a complete opposite to the slower technical stuff we'd just been on but both a heap of fun.

We'd managed to get to the end with plenty of time to spare so as Grant went home I went to check out a couple of LBS before heading back to jump on a train. With a train at the platform as I arrived I decided to just jump on and see if it was the right one. I could always get off at the next stop and get on the right train if it wasn't and that's what I had to do as the announcement came with the train moving off that I was on the Port Kembla service. Getting off at Coniston I found I had a long wait for the right train and after eating some lunch decided I could ride on and make at least Unanderra before the train caught up to me. So I noted down times for a couple of stations and headed off. Ended up being that I stayed ahead of the train the whole way and got home just before it was due in Albion Park Station so I got to ride further and save time

coffeeandwine wrote:Nice work Oldnewby, lucky there aren't too many hills around Berwick How hard was Kinglake compared to ATB?

cheers c&w, I can honestly say ATB was harder - only cos I'd never ridden that distance before. I said to my mate at around 160km, "wow, I feel pretty good", then about 10km later the hard stuff started. I love hills, so I definitely enjoyed Kinglake. But ATB was a much bigger event, so the atmosphere was more enjoyable.

Ozkaban wrote:I'm about the same

Nice work Ozkaban!

grantw wrote:Nice going Oldnewby.

thanks grantw, looks like you guys had a good ride today!

sblack wrote:Oldnewby, top effort for your first year on the bike, regardless of what the real figure for the climbing is it's still a decent chunk of climbing

thanks too sblack,As I said, I love the encouragement on this thread, keep up the great riding everyone!

My wife got her roster and it's not looking friendly for the 79 mile challenge. She's on night shift for the 16th and 17th so I'll need to have the kids for the days so she can get some sleep. So I'll have to say the Shoalhaven tour is out of the question and I'll have to play it by ear to see where I get to fit the ride in, might have to tow Noah along for it.

Anyway, I have a week to worry about that. Got an easy couple of days now resting before the Fling on Sunday. Really looking forward to it.

Good effort considering a couple of weeks ago you where to sick to ride.

I was pretty happy with my ride. My only problem was my rear tyre. Started the day tubeless and all was going well until a bit after 50km when I got a puncture. Stopped and put it to the bottom, seamed to seal so I continued on. Only lasted a few minutes before it opened up again so I stopped and gave it longer to seal this time but it didn't hold again. Decided it was time to put a tube in. Fitted a tube and pumping away for ages thinking this hand pump sucks, taking forever to get any pressure. Sure enough there was a leak where a previous puncture repair had failed so it was time for the second tube. My pump really did suck at getting decent pressure, not helped by the previous pumping wearing me out, but I thought I had enough pressure to keep going and maybe top it up at transition with a floor pump. Well I was wrong, the little creek crossing just before halfway hill I pinch flatted and things kept getting worse. With all the sealant now on the tube getting it clean enough for a patch to stick was difficult and I only got about 50 metres up the hill before I was flat again. Spent ages trying to get one tube to hold air. Ended up getting some elastoplast out of the first aid supplies to hold the patches in place. By this stage I'd used all my patches but was given another by a kind passer by.

That got me to within the last 10 km of the stage when the tyre went flat again. No worries, not far to transition and it's a slow leak, I'll just pump it up and ride on. Leaked faster this time and in another couple of kilometres I was pumping it up again.. and again.. until with about 5 km left it was leaking as fast as I could pump it so I rode on a flat into transition. There I was greeted with the bad news that they had no tubes. Thankfully another ride gave me a patch kit and I set about patching tubes to get one to hold air. A few more patches later and I had a tube holding air again and it was off into the last stage. Thankfully that saw me through to the end. So a couple of lessons for next time. Firstly no more patched tubes as spares. The one that had failed had previously been used on the bike for a couple of months without issue but within the two weeks since going tubeless it had come undone while sitting in my saddle bag. Secondly, it's time to get some CO2 canisters or a better pump, maybe both. Enough air in the good tube and I wouldn't have pinch flatted and could have made it without having to resort to patches.

So how was the ride other than that? The forecast rain hadn't come so the conditions where still quite dry and dusty. Made for some fun fishtailing through some fast sandy sections as well as bringing new meaning to the term "eat my dust" as at times, particularly in the early stages when everyone was bunched up, you'd find yourself riding into the dust cloud created by the rider in front. It took a few kilometres for the field to settle out and from there I set about trying to cruise through the early stages rather than push too hard to soon. Was working well and I was feeling comfortable as well as holding a faster pace than my initial plan. The course in the early sections was definitely faster than the Wingello section I'd ridden a few weeks earlier.

Through the first transition and I actually got stopped by the train that the 5 minutes to get between transitions was introduced for. It was still a cruisy ride to make it just under the 5 minutes and head into stage 2. It was some more comfortable cruising before the singletrack started. That's when I started feeling it, so much harder work in the single track but having plenty of fun and still comfortably ahead of my initial 10 hour target time, in fact I was sitting closer to to a 6.5 hour pace but I knew it was still going to get tougher from here and the average was sure to drop.

I reached the wall that had beaten me last time and did much better this time, I'd made it past the water bar and was looking like I could make it when I heard the sounds of the elite riders coming up behind. A couple of checks behind me and there was no way I was getting to the top before they caught me so I moved over to give them the good line up and that was my climb over. I'd made the hardest part but once I moved onto the rocky edge I couldn't straighten up and keep going. I was at least thankful they'd caught me hear and I was able to get out of the way without holding them up rather than in some section of single track where it could have been a lot harder to get out of the way.

There was only the occasional rider to get out of the way of on the single track then at the 50km mark and I was on a short section of fire trail between the single track when Jenny Fay made her way past on her way to make it 6 from 6 wins for the Elite Female in the series this year. It was on the next section of single track that I managed to get the puncture. Probably from moving into the bush one time to let a faster rider through.

The next challenge on the list would be halfway hill, a section that was closed on my last ride of Wingello. It turned out to be not as bad as I was expecting. Yes it was long and slow but not as challenging as some of the shorter but steeper climbs along the way.

It was in the final stage on the private property section that I would find the course most challenging. A section called the Roller Coaster saw me come to a sudden halt as I cramped on one of the uphill bits. Somewhere else in that single track a short sandy uphill also brought me to a stop as the front dug in and rear started spinning. Then Brokeback Mountain, a winding path worn into a grass hill was another slow, energy sapping climb. By the top I was pretty stuffed and just rolled through much of the next bit of single track while I recovered.

By this stage I was starting to contemplate what to do at Your Call and lost count of the number of times I changed my mind over whether to try the steep was or not over the next few kilometres. When I arrived it just seamed instinctive to go left and head up the steep bit, after all, if I could just crawl up it in granny gear it should still be quicker than the longer flatter way. It was surprisingly not as tough as I expected either. Apart from a loose rock causing my rear to slip sideways, bringing me to a brief stop I was able to ride it more comfortably than many other sections of the course.

That was the last major feature and from there it was a fairly straight forward run to the finish, with one final little bit of single track in the few hundred metres the only thing to slow progress other than tired legs.

So I crossed the line still comfortably under my initial 10 hour target with an official race time of 8:58:14.8.

Great job Shane, I don't think I would have been that far behind you with the issues you had. Half way hill was a walk all the way for me as I couldn't get granny gear so I was stuck in the middle ring

Who is online

About the Australian Cycling Forums

The largest cycling discussion forum in Australia for all things bike; from new riders to seasoned bike nuts, the Australian Cycling Forums are a welcoming community where you can ask questions and talk about the type of bikes and cycling topics you like.